Mathews brothers’ quick action saves couple

Dante Pomposini of Port Haywood, was on his way home from Gloucester with his brother Josh last Thursday when the two of them witnessed an accident—and quite possibly ended up saving two lives.

An SUV Dante had been driving behind suddenly ran off the right side of the road, turned sideways, appeared to go airborne, and landed in the creek that runs under the bridge at the intersection of Routes 14 and 3 at the Gloucester-Mathews county line.

Dante said he and Josh didn’t have time to think about what they were doing; they just reacted. Dante pulled his car off the road in front of a disabled vehicle that had been left on the side of Route 14. Thinking that vehicle might have been clipped by the SUV, the men ran back to make sure there was no one inside before running down the embankment toward the SUV. As they ran, Josh called 911 on his cell phone.

The SUV was in the creek and it was sinking fast. There was water over the hood and, because it was tilted to the side, the passenger’s side was completely submerged and there was water a quarter of the way up the driver’s side.